How much is the largest emerald in the world. most expensive emerald

Hello dear readers! Deposits of fairly large varieties of beryl today are Colombia and Brazil. In this regard, many are interested in exactly where the most big emerald in the world. Smaller, but also significant precious nuggets are mined in the Ural mountains in Russia, Pakistan, Northern and Western Europe, Afghanistan.

The largest emerald in the world: what is it

The largest copy of the emerald in the world is called "Bahia", also noteworthy representatives of the beryl group are called "Fura" and "Theodora", a stone from Karnaiba, a Rockefeller emerald.

Bahia nugget

The mineral was mined in 2001 in Brazil, in a mine located in a region called Bahia, which gave it its name. If you look at the photo, you can see that large gems are located in the rock from the rock. The entire find has a weight of 381 kg.

The jewel was raised to the surface and delivered to the largest city in Brazil - Sao Paulo. The owner of the emerald mine sold the stone to American businessman Tommy Thomas, who told the media that he bought the crystal for $60,000, but experts estimated the mineral at $400-900 million. Since 2005, the crystal has been located in the USA, and up to our time it has changed owners more than once. The latter bought a nugget for $1.3 million and was left without anything.

Before being in the hands of the last owner, the emerald traveled to many places. At the beginning of its journey, the stone was located in San Jose, then moved to New Orleans, where it miraculously did not disappear after Hurricane Katrina. In 2008, the police seized the minerals from a man who stole them and wanted to sell them for less at one of the trading floors in the Internet. After seizing the stone from the fraudster, it was returned to California.

Interest in the precious stone has been repeatedly shown by museums. Also, the Brazilian authorities stated that the nugget belongs to the country in which it was mined, as it was taken out illegally from there. This statement provoked more than one lawsuit. In 2015, one of them decided that the Brazilian authorities should pay a certain amount to the one who owned the most precious stone at that time, but this did not happen, the gem is still stored in the police station.

Green beryl from Karnaiba

One of the most beautiful dark green emeralds saturated shade was found in a mine called "Karnaiba" in 2017. The mineral weighs 360 kg and has a height of 1.3 m. The mine where the gem was discovered is also located in Brazil.

After examining one of the highest quality emeralds in the world, experts came to the conclusion that the nugget is so perfect that the future in the form of inserts in jewelry is clearly not for the mineral. And so it happened, the gem fell into the hands of a true connoisseur of natural samples. The name of the real owner of such a valuable specimen is not known, the media report that he is going to exhibit green beryl as an exhibit in cultural institutions. The price of the stone is also not known.

Jewel of Theodore

This specimen belongs to the largest polished nuggets, weight is 11.5 kg. The real owner of the stone is Regan Reaney, who bought the stone using the Internet in India. However, experts doubt the authenticity of the gem, as the owner of the stone has been seen more than once in counterfeiting various gems.

In 2012, the nugget was put up for sale at one of the auctions, the starting price was $ 500,000, but the buyer was never found. Potential buyers were scared off not only by the cost of the gem, but also by the fact that the owner of the nugget was accused of fraud on the eve of the auction. There were also rumors that when one of the specialists offered to prove the authenticity of the stone by breaking off a fragment from it and examining it, the owner did not allow this to be done.

Mineral Fura

In 2011, an emerald weighing 2.27 kg mined in Colombia was put up for auction. Its owners believed that the nugget was the largest in the world. The gem got its name in honor of a beauty who lived in the area where it was mined.

Today, this emerald is considered a priceless specimen. The nugget has the following qualities:

1. Saturated deep dark green hue, which is already a rarity, since emeralds of lighter tones are more often mined.
2. The stone is not transparent, which is more valued in this variety of beryls than transparency.
3. Due to the fact that the nugget developed in natural conditions, it has inclusions, but the less the mineral is quite pure.

The number of people who want to look at the crystal with their own eyes is growing every day, but only fifteen people can look at the jewel at the same time.

It is known that the owner of this jewel for a long time is Victor Carranza, owner of the emerald mine. For a long time, the fact that such a magnificent specimen of a variety of beryl was found was hidden from the eyes and ears of the public.

Now the owner of the Fury does not hide the fact that he is the owner of another beautiful amazingly green emerald called Tera, whose weight is 0.4 kg. Both representatives of the beryl group have never been cut, as the owner does not want to destroy their natural beauty.

Gem of the Rockefellers

No one knows how much the gemstone weighed at the time it was mined. After the mineral was processed, its weight became equal to 3.608 g. The color of the gem is rich and deep without the slightest hint of yellow or brown.

The first information about the nugget dates back to 1930. It is known that the gem was mined in Colombia, like most other perfect emeralds. The first person to buy it was a man named John Rockefeller, who ordered it to be made into a luxurious brooch for his wife. After the woman's death, the brooch was remade into a ring. In June 2017, the jewel passed into the hands of a new owner who bought it at auction.

List of other famous emeralds

There are also other nuggets that deserve attention and are distinguished by their originality:

1. HIRING. One of the largest gems after Bahia gem. Find such a rare specimen in a North American mine. Its weight is 0.37 kg. This emerald is the largest ever found in North America.
2. LKA. Green beryl, also mined in North America, weighs 0.34 kg, is about 20 cm long, and is rich and deep in color.
3. Gachal Gem has a weight of 0.17 kg, was purchased by Harry Winston, who later presented it to one of the universities in Washington. Today, the crystal is in the university's gallery of precious minerals.
4. Patricia is one of the most beautiful and largest gems in the world, it weighs 0.13 kg. Found this copy in Colombia. Jewelers managed to evaluate its properties, the appearance is two minerals fused together. Now the nugget is in the Museum of Natural History in one of the cities of America.

In addition to size, emeralds have other significant qualities:

• Mogul. Smaragd was found in Colombia, famous for the fact that one of its sides is decorated with ornaments, and lines of prayers are engraved on the other.
• Hooker, although small, has a pure amazing green color, found in Colombia, cut with a platinum brooch and diamonds.
• Devonshire Gem named so in honor of its owner, due to numerous defects, no jewelry was made from it.
• Emerald Buddha named after its shape, since a figurine of this deity was carved from stone, it was found in Madagascar.

Every year, a myriad of green nuggets are mined all over the world, but the minerals described above are very rare, so each has its own history. Many people know that pure green nuggets exceed the value of notorious and successful diamonds all over the world.

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Team LyubiKamni

"Thanks again for a nice and necessary initiative (from the author. Cheers :-)) And tell us about the largest minerals - diamonds, rubies, etc. You can not only about natural ones, but also grown ones. "

Let's start with the most popular, and at the end you are waiting for very rare minerals, to be honest, I have never heard of many at all!

Emerald "Mogul"

On September 28, 2001, in London, at one of the largest auctions in the world, Christie's, one of the largest emeralds, the famous Mogul, was sold for $ 2.2 million.

The sides of this 217.8 carat and 10 cm high gemstone are engraved with five lines of Muslim prayer and an oriental flower pattern. On the four sides of the "Mogul" ledges are made in order to fix the stone on clothes or a turban.

It is believed that the Mogul was brought to India by the Spanish conquistadors in the 17th century. The "Mogul" belonged to the Mughal dynasty and was cut during the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb, in the middle of the 17th - early 18th centuries.

Weight 217.80 carats. Originally belonged to the I emperors of the Mughal dynasty. It was cut between 1658 and 1707. during the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb. On one side of it are engraved texts of prayers, on the other - ornaments of flowers.

The name of the person who bought one of the most beautiful and largest emeralds is still kept secret.

The weight before cutting was 287.42 carats. Mined in South Africa in 1878 and bought by the New York jeweler Charles Tiffany. A bird encrusted with rubies, white and yellow diamonds in gold and platinum sits on a faceted stone. The piece has only been worn twice in history, including once by Audrey Hepburn when she starred in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

THE LARGEST WHITE DIAMOND “CULLINAN” (“STAR OF AFRICA”)

The largest cut diamond in the world. Its initial weight was 3026 carats, dimensions 100x65x50 mm. It was found by accident in 1905 in South Africa and, according to experts, was a fragment of an even larger crystal that was never found. In 1907, the Transvaal government presented it to the English King Edward VII. In 1908, it was split into several pieces, from which 9 large diamonds were made, 96 small ones, and one piece of 69.5 carats was left uncut. Its "fragments" are stored in the Tower (London). "Cullinan-1" is embedded in the scepter of King Edward VII. "Cullinan-N" is inserted into the crown of the British Empire.

About the largest diamonds you can

THE LARGEST RUBY

It doesn’t have a name yet, but most likely it will be called the “King of Rubies”. Weight 440 carats. Found in Greenland. The stone has a holistic structure. This means that it will not need to be cut into several parts, but it will only be possible to give it a perfect round shape. Now Canadian jewelers are doing this. After finishing work, the ruby ​​will weigh up to 380 carats.

Ruby, being one of the precious stones, is very loved by jewelers, and its rich red color goes well with the color of gold.

Translated from Latin, the word "ruber" is translated "red". Only in 1800 it was established that ruby ​​and sapphire are a variety of corundum. Before that, both red spinel and garnet were called ruby ​​(all three minerals were also called carbuncles). The color of rubies varies both in different deposits and within the same deposit, so it is impossible to judge its origin by the shade of a ruby. The most valuable rubies are "the color of pigeon blood" - pure red, with a slight purple hue. Coloring is often distributed unevenly: spots or stripes. Rough stones have a dull or oily sheen, but a cut ruby ​​sparkles almost like a diamond.

In terms of its hardness, ruby ​​is second only to diamond (brilliant), although it is 140 times softer than it. Rubies often contain inclusions. They are not at all a defect of the stone, on the contrary, they speak of its natural origin.

Large rubies are rarer than comparable diamonds. The largest gem-quality ruby ​​found in Burma weighed 400 carats. The most beautiful world-famous rubies include the 167-carat Edward Ruby. It is kept in the British Museum of Natural History. Riva Star Ruby - 138.7 carats, which is located in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Star ruby ​​"De Long" - 100 carats. It is kept in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Numerous rubies adorn royal regalia and ancient family jewels. However, many of them were subsequently "exposed", turning out to be red spinel. Among them, the "Black Prince's Ruby" in the British Crown and "Timur's Ruby", today owned by the Sheikh of Kuwait, Nasser Ab-Sabah.

It is customary to assign many precious stones magical properties. So, it is believed, for example, that the ruby ​​allows the owner to be completely safe even among enemies, rewards with invulnerability, but for this the stone must be worn under clothing on the body and it is advisable never to part with it. He controls love desires, settles disputes, corrects a bad mood, relieves grief and sadness. Ruby increases responsibility in a person and promotes leadership aspirations, relieving the owner of inferiority complexes and insecurity. It gives rise to love and attraction to the great, whether it be science or art. The ruby ​​is generally said to give the strength of a lion, the fearlessness of an eagle, and the wisdom of a snake. The stone can change color, which will serve as a warning to the owner of the danger, but this skill of the ruby ​​\u200b\u200bmust be observed for a long time, if only because the color does not change too much. Ruby is a stone of those who want to achieve a lot in life, and he supports the owner in this if he does not have vain vanity and understands that great goals are the goals of achieving happiness for other people.

THE BLOODEST GEM "REGENT"

A stone weighing 410 carats was found in 1701 by a slave in the mines of Golconda. To endure large stone from the mine, the Hindu inflicted a wound on his lower back and hid the diamond in a knit. He gave the stone to the English cable, which promised him freedom in exchange, but, luring him onto the ship, killed him. The money received by the Englishman for the sale of the stone did not go to the future. Having quickly squandered them, he hanged himself. The stone was bought by Sir Thomas Pitt, a former pirate, and at that time the governor of the fortress of St. George. Returning to London, he spent several years in seclusion, not parting with the jewel for a minute. Tired of being a stone slave, he sold it to the French king. He was evicted from the French treasury, pledged to a Moscow merchant and set into Napoleon's swords. Now the diamond is stored in the Louvre (Paris).

THE BIGGEST PEARL "ALLAH"

Although not a mineral, but let's not ignore it. Pearl diameter 238 mm, weight 6400 grams. It was found in 1934. The lines on its surface resemble convolutions human brain. It is stored in the USA, where it got thanks to Wilburn Dowell Cobb. He received it as a gift for saving the life of the first owner of the pearl - the head of the island of Palawan in the Philippines.

Tridacna shells can grow up to 1.5 m in length and reach a weight of about 250 kg. At the same time, the weight of the mollusk itself is not more than 30 kg; the rest of the mass falls on the sink. This oddly shaped pearl was discovered by a pearl diver on the island of Palovan in the Philippines in 1934. The lines on its surface resemble the convolutions of the human brain. The pearl is 238 mm in diameter and weighs 12,800 carats (6400 g). For comparison, artificial pearl 7.5 mm in diameter would weigh approximately 3 carats (0.6 g). According to the Guinness Book of Records, the San Francisco Gem Lab valued the pearl of Allah at $40,000,0000. Exact copies of the pearl are displayed in various museums around the world.

The head of the island, a Muslim who received the pearl as his property, saw in it a head in a turban and called it the pearl of Allah. Five years later, a man named Wilburn Dowell Cobb saved the life of the head of the island's son, and the pearl was given to him as a thank you gift. In 1980, the Cobb heirs sold it for $200,000 to Peter Hoffman, a Beverly Hills jeweler. He sold part of the rights to the pearl to Victor Barbish of Colorado Springs, leaving himself 33% of the ownership. Barbish told reporters that he received an offer from some individuals in the Osama bin Laden group to purchase a pearl from him for $60,000,000 to give to Hussein as a "unity overture" between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government. Barbish said he received other offers to buy the pearl from him for $40,000,000.

He added that for several years the pearl was in the vault of the Denver Bank and he would not reveal the secret of its current location. However, the owner is not averse to donating the miracle of nature to some museum or library. “We will donate this pearl,” he said. We don't want money for her. We want to donate it as a charity so that everyone can see it, whether in a museum or the presidential library.”

Learn more about this gem.

THE LARGEST SAPPHIRE "LONE STAR"

Among the famous star sapphires is the Lone Star sapphire, weighing 9719 carats. He was also called "Harold Roper" after the owner of the stone. Another sapphire, considered the largest among the star-shaped ones, had a mass of 63,000 carats. It was found in Burma in 1966. The Black Star of Queensland sapphire was found in Australia. It got its name due to its dark blue, almost black color. After processing, the weight of the stone was 733 carats. A large star sapphire was found in Sri Lanka. The weight of the stone, named "Star of India", was 563.3 carats. This stone was stolen from the New York Museum, where it was kept. And only two years later it was safely returned to the museum.

Another famous sapphire "The Eye of Allah" served as an adornment of the throne of Shah Nadir and was distinguished by extraordinary transparency. The 62-carat Logan Sapphire adorned John Rockefeller's ring.

THE LARGEST PLATINUM Nugget "URAL GIANT"

The largest of the existing platinum nuggets weighs 7 kg 860.5 g and is called the Ural Giant. Stored in the Diamond Fund.

The largest nugget of pure gold

Found in 1869 in the Moliagul region, pc. Victoria, Australia, the 70.92 kg "Welcome Wanderer" nugget contained 69.92 kg of pure gold.

By the way:

In the constellation of Centaurus, about 50 light-years from Earth, astronomers have discovered a star they named Luky, which is a giant diamond. A block of crystallized carbon with a diameter of 1500 km was the core of an ancient star, which was very similar to the Sun, but later faded and decreased in size.

Painite

Painite is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the rarest gemstone in the world ... At the beginning of 2005, there were only eighteen known specimens, all numbered and described. Of these, there were only 3 pure red painites, and specimen No. 5 was considered the heaviest. This stone was cut into an oval and weighed 2.54 carats . In 2006, another source of painites was found in Burma, from which about 10 tons of raw material was recovered. The newly found painites turned out to be very dark red, or rather brown-red or red-brown stones, and their value turned out to be a thousand times lower than previously known ones. QUALITY), and now the total number of known and confirmed painites does not exceed 330 pieces worldwide (data for July 2009).

In general, the color spectrum of painites ranges from pink to red and brown. Painite has extremely strong pleochroism and fluoresces a brilliant green under ultraviolet light. The only reliably confirmed deposits in the world are in Burma, in the areas of Mogog and Kachina. Painite got its name in honor of the British gemologist Arthur Charles Davy Payne, who first explored and described it.

V last years on the Internet, painites are often offered for sale. And if it is difficult, but still possible, to believe in the reality of the very dark brown-red painites offered, then the red transparent painites offered at a relatively high price for Internet commerce are an absolute deception! True Red Pure Painite DOES NOT HAVE A PRICE - HE IS PRICELESS!!!

It is very easy to distinguish real, even super-dark painite from a fake, even at home. Under the light of an ordinary blue lamp, real painite will noticeably turn green.

SERENDIBIT

Mineral Serendibit (not to be confused with Serandite) found in various parts of the globe. But the gemstone serendibite remains the rarest in the world. Serendibit has a fairly wide range of colors - blue, bluish green, light yellow, dark blue and black. At present, the existence of slightly more 1000 faceted serendibs, of which the vast majority are black. But for example, there are only 3 copies of light blue serendipity, 0.35 carats, 0.55 carats and 0.56 carats . The first 2 were discovered by the famous seeker of gemological rarities D.P. Gunesekeroy, the largest of them is shown in the photo. Both stones were purchased by the late Professor Guble from Switzerland, who valued the smaller serendibite at 1 $4,300 per carat.

Serendibit has a very complex chemical composition, which includes calcium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, boron and oxygen .. The name Serendibit comes from the ancient Arabic name of Sri Lanka "Serendibi", which Sinbad refers to in describing his sixth journey.

All unique pure, light-colored serendibites were found in Sri Lanka, and black serendibites (in fact, extremely dark blue), from which stones of gem and collection quality are cut, are mined only in Burma, in a single mine in the South Mogog region.

POUDRETTEIT

In 2000, in Burma, in northern Mogog, a stone was discovered that, after cutting, turned into an extremely beautiful purple, obviously precious, stone weighing 3 carats . In 2004, nine more similar crystals were found in the same mine, including one pale pink, which, when cut, weighed 9.41 carats.

A comprehensive study of these stones showed that they all belong to the mineral poudretteite, known since 1987. The mineral got its name in honor of the family Poudrette , which to this day owns a small mine located in the bowels of the highest mountain in the vicinity of Montreal, in Quebec - in Mount Saint-Hilair. Since 1987, several dozen small, very pale pink, almost colorless crystals have been found in this mine, which, despite their softness (5 on the Mohs scale), can be cut with high quality.

To date, poudretteite has not been found in Burma, and the Canadian miracle mountain has given humanity only about 3 hundred stones of various qualities, of which about 2 dozen exceed the weight of 1 carat. Depending on the quality - purity and color saturation, the cost of pudretteite ranges from 2000 to 10000$ per carat , not counting, of course, some of the largest and breathtakingly expensive stones.

grandidierite

A light bluish-green or greenish-blue mineral has recently been found in Madagascar. And before that, the first grandidierite was discovered in Sri Lanka and was initially mistaken for serendibit. The very first piece, cut at 0.29 carat trillion (pictured), was purchased and first carefully examined in 2000 by Professor Guble in Switzerland.

Grandidireite - a stone with trichroism (blue, green, white) got its name in honor of the explorer, natural historian Alfred Grandidir, who, among other things, found and dug out the bones of the famous fossil bird-elephant weighing more than half a ton in Madagascar. As of Nowadays, the existence of 8 grandidierites has been reliably confirmed, and about a dozen more stones are suspected of being able to be identified as grandidierites.

EREMEEVIT (DZHEREMEEVIT)

Yeremevit - an almost colorless, sky-blue or very light yellow stone, named after the Russian mineralogist Pavel Eremeev, who first found this mineral in 1883 in the Namib Desert, Africa. Discovered by now in several regions of the planet, jewelry and collection eremeyites are still mined (no more than 1-3 per year) only in Namibia. In nature, this mineral is found in the form of small crystals of a prismatic (obelisk-like) shape. At first, these stones were mistaken for aquamarines. rare color and unusual crystallization. In 2005, Switzerland presented the largest known faceted eremeyvit weighing 2.93 carats . It is reliably known about the existence of several hundred faceted Eremeevites, their cost, including on the Internet, depending on the quality, ranges from 2000 to 20000 dollars per carat.

MAJORITE - PURPLE GARNET

Majorite - the rarest form of pomegranate purple. Majorites can be formed either under the impact of a fallen meteorite, or underground at a depth of at least 400 km! Named after geophysicist Alan Major, who studied the formation of garnets under ultrahigh pressure.

For the first time, majorite was found in 1970 in the Koorara meteorite near the town of Yecla, in Western Australia. In 1990, several large crystals were found in Madagascar, in the Bequili region. Several copies over the next decade were found in Russia, Turkey and the United States. The latest find dates back to 2004, when about a thousand small mica-like crystals were found in France, in the Chantoneu region, later cut and sold at a price of $ 2,400 per carat. The most expensive purple garnet majorite to date, weighing 4.2 carats , was sold in 2003 for 6.8 million dollars.

It can be assumed that as humanity explores the Moon and Mars, majorites will no longer be uniquely rare, since the conditions for their formation are much more favorable on the Moon and Mars.

TAAFFEIT

Taaffeite one of the rarest and most unique collectible stones. A very small number of such stones have been found for all time, and most of them were mistakenly recognized as spinel. To date, only in Sri Lanka and Tanzania a unique mineral is found from time to time. Since the deposits in East Africa and Sri Lanka are geologically related, our colleagues expect to find Taaffeit in Madagascar as well.

In 1945, Earl Taaffe, a Dublin gemologist, found a pale pink-lilac stone in a box of jewelery waste. By appearance and the properties of the stone reminded him of spinel, but at the same time showed a clear double refraction. The stone was sent to the British Museum for examination, where it was determined that this stone is an unknown mineral. Although its refractive index is approximately the same as that of spinel, taaffeite is uniquely defined due to its double refraction and uniaxial negative characteristic.

In spite of constant search, another taaffeite was found only in 1949, in a bag with a scattering of stones from Sri Lanka. The third stone was found in 1957 by Robert Crowningshield, a GIA expert. The fourth taaffeite was found only 10 years later.

Since then, gemologists have been more or less aware of taaffeite, and individual stones continue to be discovered. A few years ago, our partners who own mines in Tundura, Tanzania, discovered several taaffeites in their raw material brought to the surface from the mines. Since then, a constant process of re-checking all material, especially spinel, has been launched to detect the effect of double refraction. In cases of the slightest suspicion or uncertainty, additional research actually modern equipment. Thanks to this, over the past 5 years, several hundred taaffeites have been found in Tanzania alone. The largest taaffeite known today weighs 9.31 carats.

The world price for Taaffeite ranges from 2000 to 10000 dollars per carat

Tanzanite

The largest Tanzanite ever found at Merelani is a blue-violet stone weighing 16.839 thousand carats (more than 3 kg.) and size 220mm x 80mm x 70mm . The stone is named Mawenzi in honor of one of the peaks of Kilimanjaro, the second highest. The stone is so rare and unique that its commercial and even insurance value has not yet been determined.

MUSGRAVIT

Taaffeite has a very close relative - chemically and optically similar to it musgravite . The mineral was first discovered in the Musgrave Range, which is how it got its name. Later, the mineral musgravite was also discovered in Greencandia, Madagascar, Tanzania and even Antarctica!!! But all these samples could only be used for wall cladding, which was done by the Sultan of Brunei in one of his bedrooms .. But the first sample suitable for cutting into a precious stone was discovered only in 1993. For some time it was believed that taaffeite and musgravite are the same thing, but in 2003, when studying both stones on a Raman spectroscope using a green laser, evidence was obtained that taaffeite and musgravite are different minerals and different stones.

In 2005, the existence of only 8 Musgravites was reliably confirmed, now 14 such stones are known. The largest has a weight 5.93 carats (shown in the photo).

BENITOIT

The world's only benitoite deposit was found only in San Benito County, California. Benitoite is an intense blue stone with very strong dispersion, comparable to diamond, with intense blue-white fluorescence under ultraviolet light.

The largest known benitoite weighs 15.42 carats, but stones weighing more 1 carat extremely rare, less than a dozen are known. In 1974, it was stolen from Zurich airport 6.52 carat VVS drop of benitoite, still missing. There is a reasonable assumption that the stone was sawn and re-cut into 2 smaller ones and subsequently sold at one of the closed auctions.

Since 1984, benitoite has been considered the State Gemstone of California. On the world market, the cost of 1 carat of small benitoites varies, depending on the quality, from 500 to 4000 dollars per carat.

RED DIAMOND

Only a few red diamonds have been found in the history of mankind, and very few people have had the good fortune to see them and hold them in their hands. natural color red diamonds are described by gemologists as purplish red, i.e. not pure red (ruby). Regardless of size, red diamonds, along with natural black diamonds, are among the rarest and most expensive gemstones in the world. The world's only industrially mined colored diamond mine in Argyles, Australia, produces a handful of red and near-red diamonds annually, in some years as little as a few carats. worth millions of dollars per carat.

In connection with the above, regular offers of red diamonds on the Internet, including on e-bay, do not lend themselves to any serious comments...

Here I can also offer two interesting promineral blogs.

At the end of May, a giant emerald weighing 272 kilograms was found in Brazil. How much would such a stone cost? Sixteen years earlier, a 340-kilogram Bahia emerald found nearby was valued at nearly a billion dollars. Fourteen people and one state fought for the right to own a giant gem, but no one got it.

Karnaiba

In early 2001, garimpeiro miners crawled out of a tiny mine on a farm in the state of Bahia, and then pulled out of the ground not just a precious stone, but a whole block weighing more than 340 kilograms. Such large gems have never been seen in those places.

Brazilian emeralds are no different high quality. Usually they are taken at ten dollars per carat, that is, hundreds or even thousands of times cheaper than stones that are mined in Colombia and Zambia. Selling large emeralds, oddly enough, is especially difficult. No one can say with certainty how much they cost. Ultimately, the price depends only on the amount of money the buyer has and the persuasiveness of the seller, so the emerald trade attracts crooks and scammers of all kinds like a magnet.

Someone offered the garimpeiros five thousand dollars, and they readily agreed: a titmouse in the hand is better than a crane in the sky. The stone was immediately resold for 20 thousand, then it changed hands several times and eventually went to two businessmen from the city of Sao Paulo: former bookseller Elson Ribeira and his partner Rui Saraiva. They hid the emerald in the garage and waited for a buyer.

Emerald Bahia

Silicon Valley

37-year-old American Anthony Thomas did not live in poverty. He had a small but successful construction business. During the dot-com boom, he invested more than $200,000 in a fashionable California startup, Digital Reflection, which was developing a new generation of liquid crystal displays. Every now and then TV showed Silicon Valley investors making billions on similar deals. The businessman hoped that he would get a piece of this pie.

He did not yet know that 2001 was a bad time for such hopes. In a few months, the investment bubble will deflate, and hundreds of startups will overtake bankruptcy. When Wayne Catlett, the founder of Digital Reflection, approached him in July and hinted that the company urgently needed additional investment, Thomas decided that the situation could still be salvaged.

He recalled a conversation with Ken Conetto, a consultant he worked with on his construction sites. Conetto liked to talk about the Brazilian emerald mines. Thomas and Catlett contacted him and they came up with a plan. They decided to use Conetto's connections to buy up emeralds at bargain prices, which are actually worth at least $25 million. On the security of stones, you can take a large loan and invest it in a highly profitable fund. This will help keep the startup afloat.

In September, the Americans flew to Sao Paulo. Conetto took Thomas to his Brazilian acquaintances - Ribeira and Saraiva. They showed him a 340-kilogram emerald. “60 thousand dollars - and he is yours,” said one of the Brazilians.

The American businessman could not believe his luck. He claims that after returning to America, he immediately transferred 60 thousand dollars to the Brazilians and waited. The emerald was supposed to be sent by mail, but the package never arrived. A few months later, Thomas asked Conetto to fly to Sao Paulo and find out the reason for the delay. From Brazil, it was reported that the stone was sent, but got lost on the way to California.

New Orleans

From Conetto's point of view, events developed differently. During the beginning of a few years judicial trial he claimed that in reality there was neither the money that Thomas speaks of, nor the persuasion to send him by mail. According to him, the gem remained in Brazil legally and was kept in a safe bank for three years.

In 2004, Conetto, the Brazilians, and Catlett, who had joined them after Digital Reflection's bankruptcy, registered Gemworks Mining in Panama. After that, the Bahia emerald still went to the United States. A package with a declared value of $100 made it to San Jose without incident.

The partners tried to use the stone in all sorts of schemes of dubious legality. He wandered between the warehouse in San Jose, the office of Catlett's lawyer, and the vault of the former federal bank in New Orleans, where he was caught by Katrina - the most destructive hurricane in the history of the United States. The elements broke through the dams that protected the city, the bank building was flooded, and the giant emerald sank under water for several weeks.

11 kg Emerald Theodore.

The 858-carat Gachalá is considered one of the most famous emeralds in the world.

A 2860 carat Colombian emerald bowl kept in the Habsburg treasury in Vienna

Conetto soon met Larry Bigler. He claimed to be engaged in real estate, and gave the impression of a wealthy and respectable man. The Bahia Emerald immediately fascinated him, but not with its beauty (the stone is strikingly ugly), but with its prospects. Bigler had no doubt that he would find a rich idiot who liked minerals more than dollars.

He convinced Conetto that he could push the emerald and promised him half of the proceeds if he gave him the stone. Bigler then found a gem dealer in New York and offered him 10 percent if he sold the gem for more than $25 million.

The merchant set up a page on the eBay online auction and put the emerald up for sale with starting price 19 million dollars. The lot was accompanied by a flowery story about Brazilian prospectors who dragged a precious stone through the jungle for several months, fighting off attacks by panthers. Despite this, the auction attracted only one bid. Bigler ordered it to be canceled and began to look for other options.

El Monte

In November 2007, Bigler approached a bankrupt businessman named Jerry Ferrara to take over the business. At one time he traded in real estate, but then he lost everything and was forced to spend the night in the car. “It was just incredible,” Ferrara later recalled. -Bigler came with daddy and gave me ownership of the largest emerald in the world. He said he was looking for someone like me."

Bigler assigned him to meet with Keith Morrison, an obnoxious Mormon from Idaho who wants to buy diamonds for $1.3 million. Ferrara negotiated a deal and promised to give him the Bahia emerald if something happened to the promised stones.

As a result, Morrison really did not receive the diamonds and the giant emerald became his property. He teamed up with Ferrara and Bigler to find a buyer together. In the vault in the Californian city of El Monte, where the stone was kept, potential buyers began to be led.

The partners claim that Arab sheikhs and even the former chairman of the board of directors of the NASDAQ stock exchange, Bernie Madoff, were eyeing the Bahia emerald. He promised them $21 million in cash, $91 million worth of diamonds, and three $15 million watches, according to them. Two days before the deal, he was arrested and accused of creating a financial pyramid. Now he is in prison - serving a sentence of 150 years.

In June 2008, Bigler went missing. Soon news came from him: he wrote that he was kidnapped by the Brazilian mafia and begged to pay a ransom. Ferrara immediately suspected something was wrong. He began to understand and found out that Bigler was not at all a wealthy developer from California, as he claimed, but an ordinary plumber, and not a particularly good one: they complained on the Internet that they took money and did nothing.

Furious, Ferrara was quite sure that the Brazilian mafia was also a fiction. A scam to steal money from him. He told Morrison about it and they drove to El Monte. They managed to convince the manager to open the vault. The men pulled out the emerald, loaded it into a car and drove it to Las Vegas.

A few hours later, Bigler showed up in El Monte. He did not find the stone, called the police and reported the robbery.

An emerald weighing 272 kilograms found in Bahia on May 22, 2017

Las Vegas

The search for the emerald was assigned to detectives Scott Miller and Mark Gaiman of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. “It was a funny thing,” Miller recalls. - At first.

They tracked down Bigler's missing associates for several weeks and eventually found Morrison. He agreed to hand over the emerald to law enforcement on the condition that both he and Ferrara remain at large. The detectives were not opposed, but they were afraid of deception.

With a dozen police officers armed with machine guns, Miller and Gaiman drove out in several cars to Las Vegas. When they arrived, local special forces were already waiting for them at the appointed place. A helicopter circled over the meeting point. Mormon didn't lie. Morrison showed up in a tracksuit and handed over the giant emerald without resistance. As promised, he and Ferrara were not touched, and the gem was taken back to California and turned over to the police vault as evidence.

Figuring out who actually owns the Bahia emerald was not easy. The longer the detectives tried to unravel this case, the more they hated it. "It's kind of a puzzle from hell," says Miller. Some actors there are almost two dozen in this story, and each oppresses his own. As a result, the decision on ownership was left to the court.

Litigation continued for almost ten years. Everyone sued everyone - even that New York merchant who wrote tall tales on eBay about panthers and the jungle. While the proceedings were going on, Bigler disappeared again.

At one time, the scales tipped in favor of Anthony Thomas, who paid $60,000 for the emerald, but he could not find the check. According to him, all evidence of payment burned down along with the house in 2006. As a result, Thomas's claims were rejected.

In 2013, Thomas filed an appeal. During the retrial of the case, which dragged on for several more years, Ferrara and Morrison managed to convince the judge that they were right. On June 23, 2015, the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that the Bahia emerald should become the property of the company they founded, FM Holdings.

However, the story didn't end there either. Brazil claimed its rights to the gemstone. The country's authorities believe that the Bahia emerald was exported illegally and should be returned to its homeland. The US Department of Justice blocked the transfer of the gem to FM Holdings, but negotiations to return the stone dragged on.

Tomas has filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying ruinous legal bills, Ferrara has a part-time job as a private detective, and Conetto shares a cluttered trailer with his 99-year-old mother and dreams of a big yacht and a castle in Dubrovnik. The 340-pound emerald that brought them together continues to gather dust in a police vault in Los Angeles.

The wonderful gemstone emerald - a stone with a radiant and deep emerald green color - is sometimes valued higher than diamonds of the same size. These stones begin their history from the time of Ancient Egypt. Deposits off the coast of the Red Sea, where stones were mined as early as 2000 - 1500 BC, are known as "Cleopatra's Mines". And although by that time there were no emeralds left in Egypt, these gems were found at different times in different parts of the world, and individual specimens are truly amazing.

The brilliance of precious stones and the light emanating from their depths delight, beckon and fascinate. Particularly distinguished among them are the "magnificent four" of the most beautiful, expensive and rare stones - diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald. The value of an emerald is largely determined by its color, and although any color is pleasing to the eye, deep green is considered the best.

“... In comparison with them, no thing turns greener ... they spread their brilliance far and, as it were, color the air around them”, - wrote Pliny the Elder, an ancient Roman writer.

Emeralds were mined in ancient Egypt. Cleopatra considered this stone the only one worthy of its beauty, the emerald was on all her jewelry. Knowing her love for emeralds, one of the deposits was named just that - "Queen Cleopatra's Mines". In the 16th century, after the conquest South America Spaniards, a stream of gems poured into Spain, and from there to Europe and Asia.

Columbia has been considered the largest place for the extraction of green minerals since then and to this day, here are the most famous mines of Muco. The highest quality and most beautiful bright green emeralds are found here.

The true beauty of an emerald is revealed only after cutting, when the stone begins to glow from the inside.
« We stuff the stone with rays of light"- said the master cutters.

famous emeralds

Found in Colombia, this emerald hardly needs to be cut and has a gorgeous deep green color. Its weight is 1383.95 carats, for a long time it was considered the largest. It was presented as a gift to the Duke of Devonshire by Don Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil.

In the 16th - 17th centuries, the Great Moghuls ruled in India, after whom this emerald of 218 carats, dark green in color, was named. It is believed that he came to India from Colombia. On both sides, elegant engraving is visible, on one - floral ornament, on the other - a few lines from a prayer.

In 1994, a very large nugget was found in the mines of Madagascar. After 12 years, stone cutters carved a statue of Buddha out of it, while a stone of its 3600 carats lost 1000. Now the statue is located in Thailand.

In the 19th century, our Ural green minerals became competitors of emeralds from Colombia. A very large nugget of 2226 carats was found here, which was named after the Ural stone cutter Yakov Vasilyevich Kokovin. The nugget was distinguished not only by its amazing beauty, but also by the fact that many of its parts, which have dark green color were completely transparent.
This emerald is stored in the Mineralogical Museum of Moscow.

In 1993, an intergrowth of crystals weighing 5860 carats was found in the Urals, named after B.N. Yeltsin.

The emerald is a very beautiful green color with a bluish tint. In addition, it has a very rare crystal shape - 12-sided, as opposed to the usual 6-sided. Its weight is 632 carats, found in Colombia.

In the summer of 2001, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, a huge nugget weighing 38 kg (1.9 million carats) was discovered. It was smuggled into the United States and is now in New Orleans. Litigation is ongoing to identify its owners.

Jewelry with emeralds

From the famous Indian diamond in the British Crown to the football-sized sapphire, discover the world's most perfect gemstones:

1. Koh-i-Noor Diamond, gemstone british crown

The Kohinoor is a 106 carat diamond that was once the largest diamond in the world. Previously, it belonged to various rulers in India. Today it is in the possession of the British Royal Family and is part of the Crown Jewels.

When the Kohinoor diamond fell into the hands of the British royal family, it weighed 186 carats (37 grams). Prince Albert carefully looked for a diamond cutter of very good repute and went to the Netherlands, where he entrusted the diamond cutting mission to a certain Mr. Cantor, who undertook difficult task. The diamond was then presented to Queen Victoria.

It became one of the jewels in the Queen's crown and was last worn by Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (Queen Mother) during her coronation, in honor of her becoming Empress of India.

2. "Millennium Sapphire" (Millennium), an engraved sapphire the size of a soccer ball

The soccer-ball-sized "Millennium Sapphire" is a gem carved with famous historical figures. The sapphire is for sale if someone decides to spend $180 million on it and promises that this 61,500-carat wonder will be placed in a place open to the public.

Designed by Italian artist Alessio Boschi, the Millennium Sapphire was conceived as a tribute to human genius and features 134 personalities, including the faces of Beethoven, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Albert Einstein, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Millennium Sapphire is owned by a consortium of investors led by Daniel McKinney. The impressive cut sapphire has only been on public display twice in the past 15 years - in 2002 at the Academy Awards and two years later on the maiden voyage of the Sapphire Princess cruise ship.

The 28cm Millennium Sapphire was found in Madagascar in 1995. It weighed around 90,000 carats in its rough condition, but lost about a third of its weight in a two-year process that was completed in 2000.

3. Aquamarine Don Pedro (Don Pedro), the largest aquamarine in the world

The world's largest aquamarine carved from a single piece is on permanent display in Washington DC next to the Hope Diamond and Marie Antoinette's earrings.

Mined from Brazilian pegmatite in the 1980s and named after the first two Brazilian emperors, Don Pedro Aquamarine holds a special place in the National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institution.

The green-blue obelisk-shaped gemstone was cut by the famous German cutter, Bernd Munsteiner, known as the "Father of the Fancy Cut". The height of the stone is 35.5 centimeters, and it weighs 10,363 carats, or two kilograms.

4. The biggest pearl in the world


The largest luminous pearl in the world was shown on November 21, 2010, in Wenchang City, Hainan Province, South China. Weighing six tons and measuring 1.6 meters in diameter, this pearl is the largest ever discovered and is valued at $301,197,000. In China, pearls are more highly valued than diamonds.

The stone, formed mainly from the mineral fluorite, glows green in the dark. Those who found this miracle had to spend three years honing it to the shape of a pearl.

5. Pink Graff (Graff Pink), the most expensive pink diamond in the world


Lawrence Graff is the world's premier diamond and gemstone dealer, and in 2010 he lived up to his reputation by purchasing a stunning rare 24.78 carat pink diamond.

He is also the UK's richest living art buyer, having easily paid $24.1 million in New York for two of Warhol's best works, Elvis and Campbell's Soup Can. Laurence Graff also owns five luxury homes in England, France, Switzerland and New York, as well as a private Mediterranean yacht He also owns his own diamond mine outside of Johannesburg, along with half a dozen estates in Mayfair (Mayfair).

A striking 'potentially flawless' pink diamond set a new auction price record, surprising Sotheby's auction house workers. The auction was riddled with aahs as bids continued to rise. Pink diamonds have never caused such excitement in the UK. Ultimately 36 Britain's richest man, a diamond-obsessed eccentric, paid $45 million, the largest amount ever paid for jewelry.

6. Ethereal Carolina Divine, the world's largest processed Paraiba tourmaline


Montreal-based financier Vincent Boucher owns the Paraiba Divine Ethereal Caroline, a Paraiba tourmaline weighing around 192 carats and valued at between $25 million and $125 million. Divine Ethereal Carolina has set a new world record for the largest processed Paraiba tourmaline.

Paraiba Tourmaline is one of the rarest gemstones in the world, highly prized by connoisseur collectors and jewelers, and is flaunted by elite jewelers around the world. For every 10,000 diamonds, there is only one Paraiban tourmaline (named for the Brazilian region where most tourmalines were mined, including the one owned by Bush) and Boucher noted that a total of only 50 kilograms of this have been found to date. precious stone.

7. Huge 478-carat rough diamond

A huge 478-carat diamond was found in the Letseng Mine in Lesotho, a small kingdom in South Africa. It is the 20th largest diamond ever found and was found in a mine that has already yielded three of the largest diamonds in the world: the 603-carat Lesotho Promise, the 493-carat Leteng Heritage Legacy) and 601 carat Lesotho Brown. A similar but smaller stone was recently valued at $12 million. It is believed that this stone will make a 150-carat cut gem, which will reduce the significance of the current largest diamond Kohinoor.

Source 8The World's Most Expensive Carat Gemstone Sold at Auction

Designated as one of the world's unique gemstones, the flawless blue diamond was awarded the title of the world's most expensive gemstone in 2007. The 6.04-carat stone sold for $7.98 million at Sotheby's in Hong Kong. The flawless blue diamond sold for $1.32 million per carat.

The lucky buyer was London-based Moussaieff Jewelers, who were happy to purchase this diamond from a private Asian collector as it would be an addition to their collection of rare gems. blue diamonds known for attracting obscenely wealthy moneybags with their lustrous dark charisma. Although it is not the largest stone, its skillful cut and "bright blue" color justify the hefty price per carat, which is almost ten times the price per carat of a regular white diamond.

9. Emerald "Bahia" (Bahia Emerald), the largest in the world


The Bahia Emerald is one of the largest emeralds in the world and contains the largest crystal ever found. A stone weighing approximately 381 kilograms (1,900,000 carats) was found in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It narrowly escaped flooding from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 while in storage in a warehouse in New Orleans. Subsequently, in September 2008, it was reported stolen from a secure vault in South El Monte, Los Angeles, California. While the stone was valued at around $400 million, its true value remains unclear. At one point, the emerald was even listed on eBay for a price of $75 million.

After it was moved from Brazil to the US, numerous unsuccessful attempts were made to sell it, but the sale was prevented by conflicting ownership rights. Eventually, the emerald was seized from a Las Vegas gem dealer and delivered to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

10. Moussaieff Red Diamond, the most famous red diamond


Once known as the Red Shield Diamond, the Musaev Red Diamond is the largest red diamond in the world, measuring 5.11 carats. Discovered in Brazil in the 1990s, the diamond has a triangular brilliant cut (also known as a "trillian" cut) and was most recently put on public display at the 2003 Splendor of Diamonds exhibition at the Smithsonian. museum.